The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-06-16


dollar license 10 Chicago, while it will
increase the revenue, ard thus have a
tendency to intrench The traffic more
firmly in the esteem of cool, calculating,
selfish citizens.
You double and treble the license, and
the saloon keeper will double and treble
the price of his beer and whiskey, and
double and treble his efforts to draw vic.
tins into his den.
Moreover, in proportion as the busi-
ness becomes monopoly, in that pro-
portion will the saloon be given an air of
respectability, aud in that proportion
will it become more dangerous.
DR.. Howard Crosby, who is a high
license man, in a speech in Brooklyn, a
few weeks ago, used this illustration:
off tiger is loose in your streets, is it
not better to confne him to one part of
the city than to permit him to roam at
lsrge?"
"Yes," sung out some one in the
crowd, "but the best thing is to shoot the
tiger"
The fact is, it is just as easy for us to
shoot this tiger, the liquor traffic, as it is
to confne him. Just as easy to prohibit
the saloons as to regulate them by any
license law. Prohibition is, verify
believe, the one thing as touching this
question, which righteousness to day
demands of us, as people.
Do you say, give us high license
instead? Just as we'll might you cry,
oh, do not prohibit theft, only stop those
who are engaged in the business in a
small way, but let bank presidents, and
all such, go on their fraudulent practice
and thus make it more respectable. Or
do not prohibit all man-slaughter, only
pass Law putting this business into the
hands of few, who are experts and who
will do it in genteel way.
No, my friends; the government has
no right, for any consideration, to license
men to engage in business that robs
their fellow-beings of their wealth, robs
them of their character, destroys their
bodies and damns their souls.
I am not here this evening for the pur.
pose of abusing the saloon keeper. Any.
thing 1 say nos0 in reference to him is
merely incidental. I am here for the
purpose of exposing the position of our
government in consentiDg to remain a
partner in such an iniquitous traffic, and
with view Of getting you to see your
responsibility as individual voters on the
question.
We can learn lesson as to our duty
as government from the celebrated re-
ply of the Emperor Of China, when ne
was urged to license opium. Said he:
It is true, cannot prevent the intro
duction of the flowing poison; gain.
seeking and corrupt men will, for profit
and sensuality, defeat my wishes; but
nothing will induce ma to derive reve'
nue. from the vice and misery of my peo'
pie.
When it was proposed to the Queen Of
Madagascar to license strong drink, she
likewise replied:
I cannot consent, as your Queen, to
take revenue from that which destroys
the souls and bodies of my subjects.
Let me give you few more extracts
along the same line, and quote chiefly
from the Voice.
Chesterfield, in a speech against the
gin act, in l74s, said:
Vice. my lords, is not properly to be
taxed, but to be suppressed. -
Luxury, my lords, may very properly be
taxed. But the use of those things
which are simply burtful-hurtful in
their own nature, and in every degree, is
to be prohibited.
Said Theodore Frelinghuysen, in 1888
Ifmeu will engage in this destructive
traffic, if they will stoop to degrade theil
reason aud reap the wages OF inIquity
let them no longer have the law book az
a pillow, nor quiet conscience with the
opiate of court license.
Horace Greeley, in 1853, said:
To sell rum for livelihood is bai
enough, but for whole community e
share the responsibility and guilt Of such
a traffic, seems q worse bargain than tha
of Eve or Judas.
Said DIR. Albert Barnes:
A law which assumes that thing ii
wrong, and yet tolerates it; which at
tempts only to check and regulate i
| without utterly prohibiting it; which
| aims to derive revenue from it for tht
| purpose OF government; which makes
that which is morally wrong LEGAL, il
| one of those things in human affairs viii
which the throne of God can have M
fellowship.
Writes Gerritt Smith:
IF the traffic in ardent spirits is immor
al, then of necessity are the laws which
authorize the traffic immoral. And j
the laws are immoral, then we must b.
immoral if we do not protest agains
them.
These are only few of many simila
testimonies which might be adduced.
"Will you give to man bill,
Diyorcing him from heavens high sway
And while God says, Thou shalt not kill,
Say ye for gold, y.s may, ye may"
You will emember when Socrates wa
before his judges, his accuser, Miletus
charged him with having taught the doc
triue of strange divinities, and with haV
ing perverted the youth of Athens. Th'
philosopher, in reply, twitted Miletus TO
having permitted him to go on in BIZ
work for so many years. "For," said be
"he who does not prevent an evil whel
it is in his power, is equally crimins
with him who commits it,"
My friends, it is upon this principle
enunciated by the Athenian sage, that
am compelled, before God and man, tt
charge you with the sin condemned il
the text. viz, of putting tho bottle tt